I admit it. I’m a JFK assassination junkee. I watch all the shows and read all the books. In the 53 years since Kennedy was gunned down that fateful day, over 1,000 books have been written and hundreds of documentaries have been produced. According to a recent Gallup Poll, only 30 percent believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter. Count me among the minority. If you believe it was a conspiracy, answer these questions . . .

1. How have so many remained so quiet for so long?

If you believe the JFK assassination was a conspiracy, who was behind it? The FBI? The CIA? The mafia? Russia? Cuba? Lyndon Johnson? Donald Trump? A multiple of the above? How ever you answer that question – many contend it was a combination of the above – you must admit a conspiracy of this magnitude had to involve a LOT of people. Most conspiracists point to unusual behavior by the Secret Service, Dallas police, coroner, and medical examiner. Kennedy’s body was manipulated, the doctors lied, the caskets were switched. Here’s the point. Any conspiracy requires that dozens of individuals be in on it. And if you are among the 70 percent, you must believe that every one of them has kept quiet for 53 years. Not one of them has told the true story to the media, their neighbor, their family, or their priest. No death bed confessions. No slip of the tongue. Not a single verifiable example of even one of the people who was “in on it” telling their story.

2. Who would have used a nut job like Oswald as a part of a bigger plan?

No one was more unstable than Lee Harvey Oswald. But almost no one disputes he was a shooter, if not the shooter. It was his gun at the scene. It was his prints on the window. It was his place of work. He was seen in the Texas Book Depository Building that day – by multiple employees. So we know he was there. We know he fired shots. And then he was dumb enough to leave the evidence behind. And this is the kind of hired assassin the CIA, FBI, and mafia would hire? Was Maxwell Smart not available?

3. Why did they let Oswald wander the streets of Dallas after the shooting when they could have easily taken him away?

Pretty much all conspiracy theories go like this – Oswald said it himself. “I’m a patsy.” (By the way, some murderers have been known to lie – i.e. O.J.) So Oswald was set up, the theory goes. And as evidence, they point out that Jack Ruby killed Oswald before he could talk. This is the most silly of all explanations that have somehow endured through the years. I will try to explain without laughing. The story goes like this. Oswald was the fall guy. He was set up. So in their effort to keep him quiet, rather than pick him up outside the Depository Building right after the shooting and usher him to South America – or an untimely death – they let him wander the streets of Dallas until he was picked up by police, interrogated for two days – and then they had him killed. Now, I’m no FBI agent, but if it was me, I’m pretty sure I would not have given Oswald two days to blab before taking him out. Remember, he said he was a “patsy.” So, if he had been set up, would the people doing the setting up really have gambled that he wouldn’t say anything until Mr. Ruby could show up literally 60 seconds before Oswald walked out of the police holding area two days later, and then shoot him? Who were the geniuses behind the Crime of the Century who decided, “Let’s let Oswald wander the streets of Dallas, get picked up by police, and take two days to identify us, before we take him out”?

4. If there was a second bullet, rather than the “magic bullet,” where is it?

All conspiracy theorists say the same thing. One bullet hit Kennedy and another hit Connally at essentially the same time. This debunks the “magic bullet” theory, whereby they claim one Oswald bullet could not have hit both men, based on the flight of the bullet from Kennedy to Connally. Here’s the problem. One bullet was found – the one that eventually struck Gov. Connally. If there was a second bullet that hit Kennedy alone, where did it end up? No other bullet hit the car, inside or out. For the bullet that struck Kennedy’s back/throat to exit and miss the car would have required a “magic bullet” of historic proportions.

5. Why did 14 experts agree there was no one at the grassy knoll?

Nearly all who claim there was a second shooter contend he was behind the grassy knoll, to the right of the presidential motorcade. Here’s the problem. Photographs taken at the exact time of the shooting, from across the street, clearly show the entire grassy knoll area. And of the 14 experts who analyzed these pictures, not one of them saw any visual evidence of a shooter.

6. Why did Kennedy’s head snap forward before it snapped backward?

Critics of the Warren Report are quick to point out that the Zapruder film shows Kennedy’s head snapping backward, not forward, in response to the fatal head shot. Therefore, they say, the shot must have come from the right front. But slide #313 clearly shows Kennedy’s head snapping forward by over two inches before it snapped back.

7. If Kennedy was shot from the grassy knoll, why was the left side of his head intact?

Any bullet from the grassy knoll would have left a gaping hole on the back left side of the president’s head. Yet, not a single piece of evidence confirms such an injury. To the contrary, all photos debunk this idea.

8. Since the parade route was not determined until November 18, when did they recruit Oswald?

Surely, the assassination plan was hatched more than four days in advance. So did they wait until the route was announced to find assassins who had access to buildings along the route? Of did “they” plan the route themselves? Either seems rather unlikely.

9. Who manipulated the weather?

If the front that passed through North Texas that day had come through three hours later, it would have still been raining that fateful afternoon. And the bullet-proof top would have been up on the presidential limousine. And Kennedy would not have been shot. If you believe in a conspiracy, you have to believe they were willing to risk it all, to include dozens who could turn them in, all on the hope of a sunny Dallas day.

Could it have been a conspiracy involving multiple shooters, as most believe? Sure. But to believe this, you have to accept the “fact” that the great minds behind the assassination chose to include a most unreliable character (Oswald), were able to keep everyone quiet (for 53 years), and chose to let Oswald wander the streets of Dallas after the shooting (when they could have easily taken him out). You have to believe the first bullet that struck Kennedy disappeared into thin air, the grassy knoll shooter was invisible, the kill shot didn’t exit his head, and that Oswald was recruited in four days. Further, you have to believe the mafia (or CIA, FBI, Russia, Cuba, or Donald Trump) had control over the weather.

There is another option. One crazed gunman by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, who retrieved his gun from the home of Ruth Payne the day before, who told his wife he would do “something big that day,” who we know was there that day, and whose gun was the only weapon at the scene and the only weapon seen in any photograph or by any witness – acted alone.